


Jacket of Stars

by professortennant



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Leather Jackets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2605577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professortennant/pseuds/professortennant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She blushes and begins to shrug out of the jacket, already longing for the warmth as the cool air of the TARDIS hits her. She shakes her head and tries to play it off, “Just wondering what was so great about this thing, you never take if off and all. Thought it might have super powers.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jacket of Stars

The first time he sheds his jacket they are walking back from an exploding house in the freezing cold. He sees her shiver and clutch the light shawl around her shoulders. She’s only been traveling with him for a little while and she doesn’t want to be a burden.

He just rolls his eyes and slips the heavy leather jacket over her shoulders. She’s immediately struck by two things. First, she notices how small he looks without his jacket. Not for the first time, she thinks that this jacket, this garment, is his armor against the world—meant to protect him from the harshness around him.  
Secondly, she notices how she feels as soon as the leather wraps around her. 

It’s too big for her and it makes her feel small (as if she didn’t already feel small next to him). The battered material is made warm from his body heat and she feels so cheesy for saying it but it smells like exotic spices, soft leather, and stardust (well, it’s whatever the TARDIS smells like at any rate). She waits until his eyes leave her and she turns her nose into the collar and inhales.

It makes her feel safe and small and comforted. She frowns when they get back to the TARDIS and he gestures for her to return it.

In their next few trips, she finds any excuse to touch his jacket (and she tells herself it’s just the jacket she wants to touch and not the alien in it). She presses herself against his back and tries her best to surreptitiously nose the collar of his jacket, trying to get a hit of that smell, trying to regain that feeling of smallness and safety.  
The perfect opportunity arises when the Doctor finally, finally, sheds his jacket in the TARDIS console before heading out on whatever planet they had landed on for TARDIS parts. 

It’s just a small part he needs and Rose has volunteered to stay behind to do laundry. He looks at her strangely as if he can’t believe she would rather do laundry than see an alien planet.

She can’t believe it herself but she needs that jacket around her again. It has come to represent so much to her: stability, strength, protection, safety, comfort.   
He hands it to her with a warning, “Don’t get any bleach on it, Rose.” She rolls her eyes and pushes him out the TARDIS doors grinning.

She checks behind her just in case before shrugging the jacket on.

Just like that night, she’s immediately engulfed in warm leather with that distinct smell. It reminds her of nights spent next to the Doctor, hand held firmly in his, lying on their backs on the TARDIS grating, staring into the openness of space.

She inhales and is reminded of tights hugs and ear splitting grins.

She’s just about to settle into the captain’s chair to catch up on some quality time with her new favorite garment when the creak of the TARDIS door and a Northern burr rolls across her ears.

"Rose, ‘s just me. Forgot my screwdriver in my jacket po—Oh."

Rose freezes and takes in the wide-eyed, open mouthed look on his face and looks down at herself, clutching a leather jacket tightly to her body, nuzzling into the upturned collar.

"Rose? What are you doing?"

She blushes and begins to shrug out of the jacket, already longing for the warmth as the cool air of the TARDIS hits her. She shakes her head and tries to play it off, “Just wondering what was so great about this thing, you never take if off and all. Thought it might have super powers.”

She chances a glance at his face, hoping just this once that he’ll let it go, that he’ll let her slink back to her room in a little bit of shame and mortification and they can move on.

No such luck judging by the way his eyes are narrowed and his arms are crossed over his chest. Absently, she notes how nice he look with his jumper pulled taut over his chest and arms.

She tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear and fingers the sleeve of the jacket which she’s still holding. He’s not making any effort to take it back.

"Rose. What were you really doing?"

She drops her eyes from his only to have his fingers curl under her chin and bring them back to meet his, which have softened and she thinks she’s never seen bluer eyes.  
"I was, uh, trying to remember how it felt when I first put it on." She takes a deep breath and thinks in for a penny, in for a pound. "It smells really good. Like some sort of spice and the TARDIS and it reminds me of good things—safety and, and comfort and I just like the way it feels."

She searches his eyes and expects to find him ready to mock her, a comment about ‘stupid apes’ but none come. Instead, he leans forward and takes the jacket from her, looking from her to the jacket and back. 

He tosses the jacked over the captain’s chair and she’s fairly certain he’s blushing.

"There’s nothing special about the jacket, Rose. It smells that way because…because I smell that way.” 

There’s no denying it now, he’s flushed red from his neck to the tips of his ears. 

He steps forward and with a quiet, “Sod it” he engulfs her in his arms.

It’s the first hug they’ve shared, which she thinks is odd. They’ve witnessed the end of her planet and held hands and been on the brink of death more than once, but this is the first time his arms have wrapped around her body and pulled her close.

She buries her nose into the crook of his neck, inhales, and Oh.

He’s so much better than a measly leather jacket. He’s warm around her, giving off heat in waves.

Beneath her arms he’s all hard planes but oddly soft, like he’s also melting into this embrace. That distinct smell that she searched out in the jacket is simply present on him. She shifts her nose from the crook of his neck to the top of his shoulder and grins. He smells wonderful.

His arms tighten around her and the feeling of safety and contentment and stability come flooding. It’s not the jacket that brings her those feelings—it’s him.  
She feels him sigh into her hair and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she’s not the only one who draws peace and stability and safety from their embrace.

It’s the first time she feels he might finally need her as much as she needs him.


End file.
